St. Simeon the Stylite:
Religious Devotion or Excess?
By Daniel C. Peterson and William J. Hamblin

Although little known in the West, St. Simeon the Stylite remains a powerful figure in eastern Christian hagiography (the study of the lives of saints).  Simeon was born around 390 AD to poor shepherds in northwestern Syria, at a time when the Roman Empire had been officially Christian for less than a century and the majority of its inhabitants were not yet Christian. By his death in 459, Simeon had been instrumental in the development of Christian doctrine and monastic practices and the conversion of many pagans to Christianity.

Feeling called by God at an early age to a life of religious devotion and austerity, Simeon entered the monasteries of Eusebona and, later, Telanissos.  There he lived for ten years, engaging in ascetic practices such as abstaining from all food during the forty days of Lent.   Eventually, his fervor and asceticism so irritated his fellow monks-who were themselves hardly novices to ascetic zeal-that he was asked to leave the monastery.

Thereafter, Simeon became a wandering solitary hermit, seeking always to suppress his physical desires and liberate his spirit through impassioned ascetic practices.  As an itinerant holy man, he attracted the attention both of disciples who sought to follow his spiritual path and supplicants seeking his advice, intercession with God, or miraculous assistance. 

Increasingly annoyed by their constant questions and pleas, the exasperated Simeon climbed onto the top of a column to escape his pursuers, pray and meditate.  He discovered his long-sought newfound solitude to be so refreshing that he refused to come down.  Descending thereafter only briefly to mount a series of increasingly taller pillars, Simeon eventually settled on a huge column, some sixty feet tall and six feet in diameter, where he remained for the final thirty years of his life, chaining himself to it while he slept to avoid accidentally falling.  There he lived, surrounded by devoted monks and admirers who brought him food, and he was increasingly visited by pilgrims or those curious for a glimpse of the amazing spectacle.  His unusual abode gave him his new name, Simeon Stylites — Simeon “of the column” — or Simeon the Stylite.

His goal in living on the column was both to escape the throngs of devotees seeking his advice and intercession and to mystically “fly to heaven” by completely subduing all physical desires through fasting, prayer, and meditation.  Nonetheless, he was occasionally willing to converse with the pilgrims who thronged to him from all over the eastern Mediterranean.  He offered advice, reconciled enemies, discoursed on theology, and preached to the pagans, many of whom he apparently converted to Christianity.  Simeon’s fame spread to the point that even Roman emperors sought his advice on major theological issues of the day.  Leo I, for example, consulted him in christological controversies — disputes concerning the nature of Christ and His relationship to the Father.

At his death in 459, Simeon was held in awe throughout the entire Christian world.  News of his sanctity reached even Paris, as the Roman Empire in the West was crumbling under the attacks of Huns and Germans.  Later “stylites” — ascetic monks residing on columns — imitated Simeon’s lifestyle, but none equaled his fame. 

Today, the magnificent ruins of the monastery of Qal’at Sim’an (“fortress of Simeon”), near Aleppo in Syria, stand as a striking reminder of the power of Simeon’s sanctity.  The monastic complex rests on a ridge in the stark Syrian hills.  The remains of Simeon’s pillar have been chiseled down to a stub about eight feet high by the tens of thousands of pilgrims who visited the site after his death and carried off small pieces of the column as relics of the saint.  The column is enclosed by a huge octagonal shrine, and was once surmounted by a dome which has since collapsed in an earthquake.  The entire complex was surrounded by four basilica churches, a monastery, a cloister, a graveyard, a processional way, and a huge baptistery.  For nearly two centuries — until the Arab conquests around 640 AD — Simeon’s pillar remained one of the major pilgrimage sites in eastern Christianity. Simeon’s story provides a fascinating example of the fine line between religious devotion and religious excess.

The hagiographies of St. Simeon have been collected and translated by Robert Doran, The Lives of Simeon Stylites, (Cistercian Publications, 1992)

Images of the ruins of the Church of St. Simeon:

https://babsouria.online.fr/gald457.htm
https://www.galenfrysinger.com/st_simeon_syria.htm